American newsmaker from a noted family, his mother Naya Rivera (1987-2020) was an actress, singer, and model, and his father Ryan Dorsey (born 19 July 1983, Charleston, West Virginia) is also an actor.
His parents were married in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico in July 2014. In November 2016, his mother filed for divorce after two years of marriage, but called off the separation in October 2017. In late November 2017, Rivera was arrested and charged in Kanawha County, West Virginia with misdemeanor domestic battery against Dorsey after she allegedly hit him in the head during an altercation over Josey. Her bond was set at $1,000, and she was released and picked up from the courthouse by her father-in-law. She subsequently refiled for divorce in December 2017. Later that month, Rivera and Dorsey agreed to temporarily share joint custody of Josey. In January 2018, the domestic battery charge was dismissed at the request of Dorsey, who “notified both the prosecution and the defense counsel that he was no longer seeking prosecution and has confirmed he was never at any time injured by the conduct of Ms. Rivera”. On 14 June 2018, Rivera and Dorsey finalized their divorce.
On 8 July 2020, Rivera was declared a missing person after four-year-old Josey was found alone in Rivera’s rented boat at Lake Piru. The search for both Rivera and Josey had begun at 4:00 p.m. PDT, three hours after they left the dock, when their rental was over. Another boater discovered Josey alone, asleep on the boat with his life jacket on, around 5 p.m. The boat was in the Narrows, an area at the north of the lake that can be quite deep and windy. Josey told investigators that they were swimming and his mother helped him climb back into the boat, but she was unable to climb back onboard, and that she disappeared underwater. He also stated that his mother was not wearing a life jacket. Lake Piru is known locally for strong, unpredictable currents and whirlpools that have caused the deaths of swimmers in the past.
On 13 July, it was announced that a body had been found floating in Lake Piru by divers when the search resumed in the morning, at around 9:30 a.m.; the body was confirmed to be Rivera’s at a press conference held later that day and she was officially declared dead.
The Ventura County sheriff suggested that Rivera and Josey may have got caught in a current, which can be common in the area, especially during the afternoon, and that she “mustered enough energy to save her son, but not enough to save herself”.
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